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Venus Williams said her match with her sister may have felt like a final, but she has one more tough match to win.

“I definitely don’t want to have a letdown and get out there (Sunday) and not play at least half as well,” said Venus Williams. “I don’t want to put any pressure on myself, but I want to go out there and perform just as well.

“It would mean a lot to me because I’ve been dreaming of winning a tournament at this level since I got back on tour. You try and you try. There are disappointments. One day you get a little closer. So this is my ‘little closer’ right now.”

The unseeded Venus Williams, who uses medication, a vegan diet and extra rest to control Sjogren’s Syndrome — an auto-immune disease she was first diagnosed with in 2011 — has had to grind out wins this week. She went to three sets for the fourth time in five matches.

Along the way, she knocked off sixth-seeded Angelique Kerber, 14th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro and her top-seeded sister, the defending Rogers Cup champion and a winner last week at Stanford.

The win made Venus Williams the third woman to pass the $30-million mark in career earnings after Serena and Maria Sharapova.

She ended her sister’s 14-match Rogers Cup winning run that dated back to wins at the 2011 and 2013 tournaments in Toronto. Serena skipped the 2012 event.

Serena Williams hadn’t lost to her older sister in five matches since 2009 in Dubai and still holds a 15-11 edge all-time.

“I think for both of us, what’s so unique about the situation is that we’re both very good players,” said Venus Williams. “I think typically you may have some siblings — one is quite good, one is not as good — so you kind of know what the result is.

“I think we both know when we walk out there, it’s not like you’re guaranteed a win. I think that’s what makes it challenging for both of us.”

In the evening semifinal, cracks began to show in Makarova’s game late in an otherwise evenly played first set as she had to fight off two set points while trailing 4-5 and another at 5-6.

The tiebreak was a mess of unforced errors by Makarova. The Russian, who beat Radwanska in the fourth round at Wimbledon this year, played with her right thigh taped.

Makarova did well to fight back from down a break in the second, but Radwanska’s relentless returning of balls from the baseline eventually wore her down. The two traded service breaks before going to another tiebreaker.

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